E-Paper
ASI lends support to Waqf bill at JPC meet
The ASI supports a controversial Waqf bill amid disputes over historical monuments, raising concerns about waqf management and legal scrutiny.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday lent its support to a controversial new Waqf bill at the third meeting of the joint committee examining the draft legislation, citing its ongoing tussle with waqf boards over 130 historical monuments, people aware of developments said.
The ASI’s stand assumes importance as experts are apprehensive that if passed in its current draft, the bill might put the waqf’s management of many historical properties under fresh legal scrutiny. With the new bill doing away with the “waqf by usage” provision and any government property identified as waqf could cease to be so, ASI’s role is seen as crucial.
The Jama Masjid in Delhi is an example of a historical property managed by the waqf board.
The discussions in the joint parliamentary panel turned into a heated debate in the first session when officials of the culture ministry, which supervises ASI, made a casual remark that hinted that the waqf boards held arbitrary powers, said the people cited above.
Opposition members lashed out at the officials and even accused them of “misleading” the panel’s members and peddling “WhatsApp university” misinformation with its claim that waqf boards could declare ownership over any property, added the people cited above.
ASI’s submissions came under heavy criticism from the Opposition. Congress leader Naseer Hussain challenged ASI’s position and said no waqf body claimed forts, palaces or residence of kings or queens. He also asked if anybody had given the power to ASI to change the character of a property, said the people cited above.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi highlighted that the law stipulates acquisition of rights shall not “affect the use of any protected monument for customary religious observances”.
He also argued that a 1958 act provided the legal framework for the preservation of a protected monument that is under private ownership but the law balanced private property rights in protected monuments with the public purpose of preservation of heritage by providing for a framework based on mutual agreement between the central government and the owners of the property, said the people cited above.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders questioned ASI’s statement on disputed properties and asked what the agency had done so far to get possession. One of the ruling side members told ASI officials that they should have approached the court, said the people cited above.
Some Opposition leaders reminded ASI that according to 2006 Rajinder Sachar committee, the WHAT is the biggest occupier of waqf lands in Delhi.
Owaisi and others also accused ASI of having selective approach and failing to protect monuments of national importance. They asked how many monuments were gradually converted to further the agenda of cultural nationalism, said the people cited above.
The bill, introduced in the previous session of Parliament, seeks to bring changes to the powers of state waqf boards, survey of waqf properties and removal of encroachments by amending the Waqf Act, 1995.
A waqf is a Muslim religious endowment, usually in the form of landed property, made for purposes of charity and community welfare.
